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As I mentioned here, we spoke to the minister to finalise the service and I started working on the draft of the order of service. I sent one to the minister to check the other day to check he is ok with everything. Everything is fine with him, including the readings we have chosen, so I just need to decide how large the text needs to be and finalise the design before I can print them. I already have all of the cover card sheets, the insert paper and the ribbon I'm going to use and mum and dad are going to help put them all together.

So for our service we have chosen the 3 hymns and 2 readings shown, in the following order:

Processional 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' Handel Welcome Minister Hymn Let’s praise the Creator {Sung to: The Road and the Miles to Dundee - CH4 697} Reading 1 John 4: 7-13, 16-19 {Mother of the Bride} Hymn Jesus, stand among us {The Graham Kendrick version - MP 381} The Marriage

Sung Blessing The Lord bless you and keep you Reading This Day I Married My Best Friend {Unc…

After managing to have a long lie on Saturday morning we headed into town to get Grahams watch, which is his wedding gift from me. They didn't have it in stock but they ordered it for us and it should be in a week or so. We looked in a few other jewellers for bridesmaids jewellery but i decided that I would just go with my original choice from an Etsy seller {which I ordered on Sunday} as I couldn't find anything suitable that was sterling silver.

Graham was heading out with his best man in the evening so I headed round to mums to start working on the order of service layout by copying out the words of the hymns. We met the minister back on Wednesday evening and he was really happy with our hymn choices and we went through when they should come in the service and the order of the rest of the ceremony. We made a couple of drafts and now I'm going to start printing them out to check the size and layout works ok on the page. Mum decided which b…

Now that our international guests have all received their invites {which I posted 2 weeks ago}, its finally time to share them with you. They were a lot of work to make each part but I'm so pleased with them and they turned out exactly as I wanted. I have had loads of lovely comments about them from our guests who all thought they were gorgeous. They also tied in with the save the date cards we sent last year.

Our main invitations:

For our evening invitations I wanted to follow the same design but just alter them slightly so I used gatefold cards instead of the pocketfolds. Then I placed the inserts inside so they were seen first when they were opened. These invites were sent out a week after the others but I think everyone got them really quickly.

Our evening invitations:

Now its on to my next DIY projects; the favour boxes, placecards, order of service', the table names & table plan.

I went to Rachel Scott yesterday morning to see my dress for the first time since it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Rachel had it hanging up ready for when I got there. It was so exciting getting to see my actual dress and being able to try on my dress that actually fitted me {well its a teeny bit big but you know what I mean}. It was also exactly as I remembered and how I expected it to look. The additional item I got made is also beautiful and looks great with the dress since it matches exactly. Although it was expensive I'm so glad I decided to go for it as I would never have been able to find one that matched or looked as good. I took my shoes with me as well so I could see what it all looked like together and I'm so pleased with it all. My mum did take a couple of pictures so we can remember what its like and show my sister but sorry to say I'm not going to share them on here. I don't want Graham or my other bridesmaids or family to see it before the day. I looked…

We started our weekend on Friday night by attempting to decide what we would like to try at our tasting at Norton House next week. We are also trying to decide which wine, canapes and evening buffet selection to offer, which is also easier said than done. We need to let our coordinator know but Tuesday so will definitely need to decide tomorrow.

On Saturday we went back to John Lewis to have a look at a couple of items that we had added to our gift list online, just to check we liked them; we also met the friends of ours who are getting married in France doing their list at the same time. Since we were in the St James Centre we also had a look in some other shops including Accessorize where I managed to find a hair slide/comb that could be a possibility for the bridesmaids. It has rhinestones on it which would tie in with the rhinestone buttons on the back of their dresses. I bought one which I will take with me on Tuesday when we go and see the dresses {and I try on mine!} If its suit…

I cant believe its coming so quick and it feels like the next 7 weeks are going to fly by. My diary is filling up with appointments and meetings including meeting the minister; our food & wine tasting; my hair & make-up trials; dress fittings for me and the bridesmaids; our hen & stag weekends and a meeting with the florist!

While we were in Florida in December, we did spend quite a lot of our time shopping; hence the reason that we both had to buy an additional suitcase to bring home. I got money for my birthday while I was there, so I did have a reason to shop, and since everything is cheaper than back here in the UK, we thought we would take advantage of that.

As you can see from the picture below {which shows our room the night before we left!} we definitely took advantage of all the outlet shopping and the brilliant sales at the malls. I did buy quite a few items of clothing, as since losing so much weight, I didn't have many things that still fitted me and I definitely had no clothes for the sun!

Our room before we went out for dinner on the last night, not even nearly packed!However, it wasn't just all stuff for ourselves, we did buy loads of Christmas presents and we also bought a few things for the wedding. Most of the items we got from Michael's and Jo~Ann's {much to Graham's d…

The completed invites I finished most of the parts at the weekend when my parents came round again to help. I ran out of glue at the end so I finished the ribbon bellybands and envelope printing last night before assembling and stamping them all. There were only 24 invites so it didn't take too long to assemble. So now all of our invites are out and people should start receiving these ones on Thursday. I think almost everyone, apart from our international guests, have received the invites we sent last week so I'm almost ready to show you how they turned out. Boxed & ready to post Now its on to the placecards and favour boxes which mum and I are going to start next Monday when we are both off work. I have already ordered everything we need for them and the supplies should all arrive this week.

When we booked our photographers back in March last year they mentioned that they were going to be photographing another wedding at our reception venue in October. I have been keeping an eye on their blog and they posted the pics last Friday. I love the pictures and hope that the sun is also shining in April!

The bride had also chosen the same bridesmaids dresses as we have, although in a different colour.

We received an invite to my friends wedding on Saturday the 8th May on Friday.

It is a friend who I used to work with, Fee, and who I studied with doing our Part 3 Architect exams. She had just received her invite from us on Friday too so when I met her for a couple of drinks that evening, we were talking non-stop about our weddings!

I'm so excited to be invited, but the wedding is in Bergerac in France so we are currently trying to decide if we could afford / be able to go for the weekend, seeing as we will only have been back from our own honeymoon just 2 weeks before. If we can go that would make 3 weddings this year including my own, Fee's in France and Helen's in Italy, when I'm also going to be a bridesmaid.

I went to our WW meeting again yesterday with mum, just to check my maintenance plan is working. I had lost some more weight again, even though I wasn't really trying too, but I think it was because I wasn't eating much when I wasn't well over Christmas. It had also been 12 weeks since I was last there so I had only really lost around half a pound a week. I definitely don't want to lose any more weight and since I've lost half stone since I got measured for my dress, I think it may be a bit too big when I go next week. At least it is so much easier to take a dress in than let it out!

After the meeting we went for lunch before I met my friends Helen, Lucy and Nic at Pretty Woman to look for bridesmaids dresses for Helen's wedding in August. We went for a couple of drinks afterwards before heading home. Today I have been doing the rest of the evening invites and I jus…

Yippee, my dress has arrived in the shop! I cant wait to see it again and be able to put on a dress that actually {hopefully} fits!

I called the dress shop at lunchtime today to make appointments for my bridesmaids to get fitted. As we were discussing dates and times, Rachel said that my dress had just arrived the day before so we should also make an appointment for me to go in and see it. I'm really glad I got my shoes already as I will need to take them with me when I go. I have a couple of days off work in February so I have made an appointment on the 16th to go in and see then try on my dress! My mum is off work that week too so she will be able to come with me. Then I will make other appointments at the seamstress to get any alterations done.

We did manage to make appointments for all of the bridesmaids fittings as well. For their first fittings, Helen is going to go on the 24th February; Lucy, Karen-Louise & Hazel on the 27th, then Ashleigh on the 12th March. Following tha…

Eeeeek, only 2 months to go! {since February is so short, its only 59 days!}

So we have made lots of progress this month which is great and means we have managed to cross off some items on our to do list. Our biggest achievement was getting the day invites posted on Monday. I just heard from my aunt and the minister that theirs arrived today! I'm now working on the evening invites and have already printed 12 and probably have another 15 to do. I am going to finish them this weekend.

Otherwise, I booked the hairdressers, got ribbon for the favour boxes and order of service, decided on our hymns and I just spoke to the minister and arranged to meet him on the 17th February. I have also started filling in the marriage notice forms which we will send to the registrar next week. We managed to get my mums outfit, Graham was able to try his kilt on, I got my shoes and we picked up and paid for our wedding rings. Apart from that we had a meeting at our venue, paid more of our venue cost, pa…

We had a really busy weekend, which was, of course, all wedding related! Every minute I was in the flat, when I wasn't eating or sleeping, I was progressing with the invites, however, we did manage to get out and do other things!

We started off on Saturday with a meeting with our coordinator at our venue. We ran through what was going to happen on the day, the approximate timings and what will happen next. We were able to confirm which tiers of the cake they should cut and which tier they should keep and we also discussed getting a piper to play when the guests arrive and when we go into the room for dinner, which they are going to provide a quote for. We will have a tasting at the end of the month or the start of march to choose both our menu and our wine. We are also choosing to upgrade our package to include canapes when the guests arrive, champagne for the toasts and better wine. Before we have the tasting we will need to decide what to offer for the evening buffet and whether …

...they're off! I posted all of our day invites at lunchtime today!The completed invitesI finished them off yesterday and my parents came round to help us assemble them. All of the UK ones were stamped and ready to go and I only had to go to the post office to get the correct postage on the 5 international ones. I'm so excited they are finally out and people should start receiving them on Wednesday. Makes it seem even more real and I cant wait till my parents start receiving the RSVP's. They did already get one from my sister but its not like we didn't know she was going to be there!Boxed & ready to postNow its on to the evening ones; thankfully there are not as many of them and they are pretty much the same design, just without the pocketfold. I have already amended the insert sheets to suit so its just a case of printing, stamping, sticking, more printing then assembling! We have just past 9 weeks to go so I would like to get the evening invites out within the ne…